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[Deb]

Your reply to the book - and, of course, the book, itself - reminded me of another that I have previously read. Madame Bovary by Flaubert reads much the same as this. Emma Bovary is discontent with life due to the unrealistic standard she tries to compare it with. She tries, like Dorian to find the greater beauty in life through her relationships, yet finds that the elusive nature of these deeper feelings cannot be found. Perhaps it is much the same way with us today. In a modern society, media has conditioned us to want the perfect, unattainable, 'beautiful' things. The question is, are we truly striving for a realistic goal? I think we fail, like Dorian and Emma Bovary, to find the pleasure and happiness weithin our own lives and thus discontent ourselves with a search for what may never be found. Is everlasting beauty the main pleasure in life? It will not bring happiness as the main character soon discovers...

[Unregistered]

Dorian wants to live in a fairy tale. He hates reality because of the lack of beauty, meaning and drama in life. He wants life be like a song or poem, beautiful and deep, but only finds that life is bleak and vulgar. The greatest challenge that Dorian experiences is that nothing in world is beautiful enough for him or can excite him to the extent that he can feel satisfaction. He sold his soul for eternal youth and beauty but finds that no matter how beautiful or innocent he looks, life to him still remains ugly, vulgar and a bore. He realizes that all that he had done- sold his soul and lived in guilt for so long, was for nothing. His greatest tragic flaw is his worship for beauty. I feel like that sometimes. Life is anything but beautiful. Maybe i just want life to be like in the movies too much. oh well.